


The Learning Process

by Smokestarrules



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, It’s mostly Mantis, Like, The Gamora/Peter is VERRRRRY slight, because she’s amazing, but I’m trying my best, but Nebula’s got a good-sized chunk in here, i still don’t know how to tag, only one sentence worth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 10:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17896922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokestarrules/pseuds/Smokestarrules
Summary: She lives with Ego and she serves him; puts him to sleep, and lets him kill thousands and thousands of his children for decades. It hurts, but he’s Master. He’s right.... isn’t he?He’s not.The Guardians save her from Ego.They become her new family.OrA Mantis character study, where she discovers that others actually care about her.





	The Learning Process

**The Learning Process**

 

She lives with Ego for as long as she knows. She can’t remember her home planet, or her parents, if she even had any. Ego had told her she was an orphan, but she wasn’t sure that had been the truth.

Who knows? She doesn’t think she’ll ever see her home planet again, and because she knew no-one there, the thought does not grieve her.

She lives with Ego and she serves him; puts him to sleep, and lets him kill thousands and thousands of his children for decades. It hurts, but he’s Master. He’s right.... isn’t he?

He’s not.

The Guardians save her from Ego.

They become her new family.

Mantis never thought she’d have a family. She’d thought Ego loved her, but now her eyes were opened. He’d never cared for her; he’d just kept her around because she was useful to him. She was his pet.

She does not want to be anyone’s pet.

So she goes on missions with the Guardians, saving people and worlds and getting pretty well-paid as they do it. And Mantis _learns_. 

Peter and Drax teach her to cook. She very much likes to do it, especially because it actually helps the team. She learns how to make many things, and she gets good. She and Drax usually trade off nights to cook, although Peter likes to as well every once in a while.

Mantis especially loves cookies. They are so good! Peter tells her that everyone likes cookies, and even Gamora agrees with him. Ego had never given her something that tasted this good.

She decides she likes cooking, and baking (apparently those are two different things? Terran’s had weird names). That is her favorite part about being away from Ego. _She_ decides what she _likes_.

Mantis discovers more. After that first disastrous attempt to touch Gamora, she learns that not _everyone_ likes to be touched by her without permission. Some of the Guardians are bothered by her powers.

She does not blame them. Sometimes she is bothered by her powers, too.

Drax is still fine whenever she sits next to him and rests her hand on his shoulder. Mantis thinks he appreciates that someone understands his grief, even if it’s just because of her abilities. He likes it when she just sits there, not talking, just sharing his sadness. Sometimes they speak, and sometimes she eases the pain, but they usually just sit. 

She doesn’t usually touch Peter. They have a bond, like everyone on the ship, and she usually can understand his emotions even without touching his skin. His face is very expressive.

Rocket avoids Mantis almost even more than Gamora does, and it’s not until they accidentally brush against each other in a hallway. In a flash, she feels the horror of his beginnings weighing on his mind. She can barely keep herself from crying. 

“Hey!” Rocket jumps back, his tail fluffed up in outrage. “Watch it, will ya?” He swats at her, although he tries not to touch her again, and _oh_ , Mantis feels _terrible_.

“I am so sorry!” She exclaims. “I did not mean too-“

“Yeah, yeah, whatever!” He waves her apologizes away. “Just don’t, okay?”

Rocket avoids her even more intensely for a few days after that, and normally Mantis would be hastening to say she’s sorry again, but he’s Rocket, and she knows he doesn’t want comfort like some of her other teammates do. After a couple of days, he starts talking to her again as if nothing had happened. Mantis decides not to mention it, and neither does he.

Strangely enough, she is unable to understand Groot. He takes her hand, sometimes, so that she can help him climb up to something, and she feels nothing.

Well. That isn’t accurate. Mantis feels... _something_ , but no language she can speak can describe the complexity that Groot has inside his mind. It’s almost impossible to figure out, too. Unless his emotions are particularly strong, she cannot usually figure out his current feelings.

When she says as much to him, he just grins - as much as a _tree child_ can grin - and gives a proud, “I am Groot!”

To which Rocket, sitting across the room, responds, “too complex and mysterious? Oh, _please_.” And Mantis resigns herself to the fact that she may not ever completely understand the small creature.

She grabs Gamora’s arm on mission gone wrong to keep them both from toppling over the edge of a cliff. Immediately Gamora yanks her arm back to her chest, but the damage is done.

They don’t have time to do anything but give each other wide-eyed looks before they’re pulled back into the fighting, but afterwards, Gamora finds Mantis in her quarters. “Look,” the Zen-Whoberis says, and Mantis waits to hear the inevitably words that’s she’s messed up for the last time; that her usefulness has run dry, and they’re kicking her out. “I’m sorry that scared you, before.” Gamora says, and _wait, what?_

“What?” Mantis asks, because she’s confused. “What do you mean?”

“I frightened you,” Gamora says, her voice trailing off. “When you touched me in the fight. Didn’t I?”

“No!” Mantis is quick to protest. “Of course not! I find it amazing that you fight so hard to keep the Guardians all safe! Why would I be scared? Your emotions were not directed at me.”

“Everyone is frightened of me,” Gamora insists, sounding confused herself. “I’m used to it. You don’t have to lie.” 

“I am not lying,” Mantis stands up, although she waits for Gamora’s gesture to come closer. “You don’t frighten me. I have always known that you care for the Guardians. Your feelings just cemented that belief.”

Gamora’s expression softens. “Oh,” she says. “Thanks.” A pause, and then Gamora turns to leave. “Mantis?” She twists her head to face Mantis again, and Mantis gives her full attention. A slight smile begins to appear on Gamora’s face. “You’re part of the Guardians, too. Don’t leave yourself out of it.” She leaves, then, and Mantis watches her go with a light heart. 

After that, Gamora lets Mantis touch her sometimes, and she doesn’t actively try to get out of Mantis’ way when she sees her coming. Mantis is very happy about that. They are _bonding_.

Gamora’s mind is fascinating. She feels an unwavering affection for them all, especially towards Peter - and Mantis would have told the Terran his feelings were returned, but Rocket said that it would be an invasion of privacy - and, like Gamora had said, Mantis herself is on that very short list of people she loved. Surprisingly, Nebula is there as well. Mantis wonders about the sister; hasn’t they been fighting? She does not understand sibling intricacies, and she thinks that theirs is an odd one at that. 

Perhaps she will ask Nebula, when she sees her again.

Gamora loves and Gamora fights and Gamora _burns_ with righteous fury; she wants to help people so badly, because she hopes it will let her forgive herself for the things she did under Thanos. It nearly drives Mantis to tears, the few times Gamora allows her to touch.

Nebula comes to join them on the ship a few days later. Her ship has been destroyed, and she needs to lay low for a bit before she could safely go get a new one. Mantis takes this as another opportunity to learn.

She watches the Luphomoid-cyborg with interest. Nebula seems to tolerate Gamora’s presence, but the rest of the Guardians are always on very thin ice with her. Rocket and Drax especially seem to have a sick joy getting into snappy arguments with Gamora’s sister.

Mantis doesn’t yet talk to Nebula one-on-one, but she would like to. She is very curious.

One day, Mantis accidentally stumbles upon what is an obviously a tender moment.

Gamora and Nebula are standing close together. The siblings are talking quietly, and Mantis wants to back right out of the room but she worries her footsteps would break them out of her conversation.

Then, Nebula leans forward to touch her forehead to Gamora’s. Mantis stiffens as Gamora’s eyes find hers, but the Zen-Whoberis just gives her a soft look before closing her eyes and easing herself into her sister’s embrace. Mantis leaves them alone, and she doesn’t think either of them notices as she goes.

The sisters seem closer, after that day. Mantis is glad about it; Gamora is much happier when she and Nebula are in a good place. 

Two weeks before Nebula’s planned departure from the _Milano_ , Mantis comes across her in the engine room.

“Oh!” Mantis is shocked to see her. Nebula is sitting on one of the benches, fixing something in her prosthetic arm. “I am sorry; I did not know someone was in here!”

Nebula rolls her eyes, but Mantis hears a muttered, “S’fine.”

She’s not sure, but Mantis thinks that had been an invitation to stay. It wasn’t an demand to leave, at least.

Mantis sits down next to her and watches her work for a while. It is fascinating, the way Nebula has wires and cybernetics combined with her original flesh and blood. Mantis does not say that aloud; she doubts Nebula would take it the right way.

“Does it hurt?” The words come out without her brain giving them permission. “When you fix your cybernetic parts, I mean.”

Nebula gives her a half-glare, keeping most of her focus on her arm. She must be in a good mood today, however, because she answers the question without much grumbling.

“Yes,” she says, twisting the wires inside her arm tighter. Her voice is raspier than Mantis had thought; deep and throaty. Mantis wonders if it had always been that way, or if her voice had been another side-effect of the tortures she’d been through. “Dear old dad wouldn’t have liked it if I couldn’t feel pain.” 

“That is terrible.” Mantis declares, and she means it too.

Nebula doesn’t look at her, but Mantis thinks she rolls her eyes. 

It becomes a bit of a tradition, for them. Or, rather, Mantis likes to think so. She’ll usually find Nebula in the engine room after lunch, either tweaking one of her cybernetic parts or searching for any news of Thanos’ whereabouts. Mantis joins her and they.. talk. Sort of.

Not really. 

Talk, as in Mantis chatters on and on while Nebula ignores her unless there’s a question she decides to answer.

It’d be offensive behavior from anyone else, but Mantis feels that it’s a big step for Nebula, so she can’t find it in herself to be angry.

One of these days, Nebula’s mood is _dark_.

Mantis doesn’t know if she’d had bad nightmares that night (which Mantis knew she had frequently; all of the Guardians knew, though they never said anything), or if she’d read disappointing news about Thanos, but whatever it was, it was bad.

The normal quiet of their ‘conversations’ was broken by Nebula’s huffing as she twisted the wires in one of her feet roughly. Mantis’ voice was softer than usual; she’d picked up on Nebula’s foul mood but was unable to figure out how to help.

Nebula gripped one panel of her foot with her tool and spread two wires out so quickly and haphazardly that she hissed in pain. 

“Stop it,” Mantis says, fighting the urge to stretch her hand out. “You are hurting yourself.” 

“Leave me be!” Nebula snarls at her. Mantis frowns.

“No,” she says determinedly. The stare at each other for a moment, each too stubborn to back down. “Let me help you,” Mantis faltered. “You know of my abilities, right? Let me ease your pain.”

Nebula watches her for a long second, dark eyes smoldering with distrust. Then, her shoulders sag. “Do what you want.” She sounds tired. Mantis’ eyes widen. She had not expected the cyborg to agree.

Because Nebula’s prosthetic parts can feel pain, Mantis wonders if she could get feelings from them as well. Reaching out slowly and carefully, she rests her hand on Nebula’s metal arm. 

The first touch, she nearly throws up with how strong the emotions are. Mantis takes a deep breath and powers on; _she_ has to be calm in order to calm others.

She doesn’t know how long it takes, but it works.

Mantis doesn’t put Nebula to sleep, but she manages to successfully calm her emotions down to a less fiery simmer.

They don’t speak again, and Mantis leaves to go make dinner a few hours later.

Nebula lets her calm her more often, after that.

Nebula’s thoughts and mind are... confusing, to say the least. To say the worst, her feelings are utterly incoherent.

She _longs_ for Thanos’ approval in the same breath she fantasizes about killing him with her own hands. She hates Gamora sometimes, so much that it makes Mantis worry, but there’s always an undercurrent of love for her sister burning strong in her heart, pushing the hatred away. She _despises_ people but wishes for a connection between herself and someone else that she can talk to. 

Nebula is... complex.

Her pain is so great. Mantis hadn’t thought anyone could ever endure so much horror. Especially as a _child_. In the few looks she’s gotten into Gamora’s emotions, she feels the same, but there’s differences.

For Nebula, _betrayal_ always simmers near the top along with resentment and anger, and sometimes, just a dull, dead feeling that makes Mantis shiver with displeasure. Mantis tries to make sure Nebula never feels that way in her presence.

Nebula seems to enjoy her company, even if Mantis occasionally annoys her with her constant questions. She doesn’t snarl as much at Mantis as she does the others, and she doesn’t automatically get up and leave the room whenever Mantis enters. She’s still constantly angry, and she still snaps at her when she gets irritated, but it takes longer for Mantis to get to that point, whereas Peter can sometimes only say one thing enough to set Nebula off.

Nebula also doesn’t mind when Mantis touches her, as long as she always asks first. The one time Mantis did not ask first had nearly sent Nebula into a frenzy, and Mantis had only caught a mix of anger and _paralyzing fear_ before the terrified cyborg had leapt away.

Most of the Guardians dislike her touching them without asking, with the notable exceptions of Groot and Drax, but Nebula _fears_ it. And the thing is, it’s got _nothing_ to do with Mantis. She fears unknown touch, not Mantis’ probing powers. She fears Thanos ripping out her other eye, not Mantis gently resting her hand on Nebula’s shoulder.

Mantis learns to never come into contact with Nebula without making sure her presence is registered beforehand, and she _always_ asks before touching after that encounter. 

Mantis has a home, on the _Milano_. And she _likes_ it there. She learns to make actual friends, and she learns to cook, and she learns that not everyone likes for her to know all of their emotions.

She learns to love them all.

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyyyyooo! So I’ve just watched both Guardians movies for the first time, and Mantis was one of my favorite characters, so I wanted to write a oneshot about her.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading; I hope you liked it! :)


End file.
